Unique Identification Project
Unique Identification Project
The relations between the State and all those who reside
within its territorial jurisdiction are extensive and complex
in all the countries of the modern world. The interaction
between citizens and governments takes place on the basis
of the exact fit between the information governments have
of their citizens and residents and the information that the
latter can give about themselves.
In India, inability to establish one’s identity is
one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing
government’s welfare schemes. The government is handicapped
in its welfare and security related functions by the incomplete
information it has about its citizens.
Till date, there is no nationally accepted, simple and reliable
way of identification. As a result individual citizens and
residents have to fill out elaborate and different kinds of
forms and furnish different documents on different occasions.
This inconveniences them, becomes a serious hardship for the
poor and the illiterate, encourages middlemen, produces administrative
inefficiency, and breeds fraud and corruption.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI), established
in February 2009, aims at addressing this situation by issuing
to each Indian resident a unique number that can be verified
by any public authority to establish the identity of the individual.
The number will be linked to the basic information about the
individual and his/her biometrics.
The number is supposed to function as an acceptable proof
of identity everywhere in India, but not as an automatic guarantee
of rights and entitlements. Moreover, the UIDAI will not make
it mandatory to anyone to enrol in this scheme. It is expected
that over time everyone will voluntarily enrol and that all
the government offices at all levels will start using the
number in all their routine operations. It will lead to the
elimination of duplication and fraud, better focusing of welfare
schemes, and greater returns from the money spent.
The proposed scheme has already attracted considerable attention
in the media. While admitting the benefits that are likely
to result from it, it has been pointed out that collecting
reliable demographic information about all the residents and
cleaning up the existing data is a mammoth task. Concerns
regarding the security of such data, the issue of individuals’
privacy, and the need for preventing any misuse of the data
have also been raised.
In this connection, a two-day workshop to discuss these and
other related matters will be held at the IIAS on October
30-31, 2009. Besides the members of the UDIAI team, representatives
of NGOs, lawyers, activists, administrators and academics
are expected to take part in it. The workshop will deliberate
on questions regarding technology, costs, risks, spin offs
and the opportunities that the scheme is likely to bring in.
Given the relationship between security, welfare, democracy
and rights and liberties, the importance of the theme of the
workshop can hardly be overestimated.
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